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The $4,300 Roland Kiyola Piano Is a Clever Digital Design Piece All Players Will Love

It’s no secret that most pianos are legit works of artistic craftsmanship — larger acoustic versions are called “grand” for more than one reason. This digital piano is available through the MoMA Design Store, so not only is it beautifully modern, it’s also literally art-adjacent. And yet beauty is more than skin deep here: trick technology in the keyboard allows this particular piano to perform much like its unplugged cousins.

“Progressive Hammer Action” in each key “helps recreate the full tone and response of an acoustic piano” by detecting both force and finger placement. This means that instead of a binary ‘off or on’ operation you’ll find in simple electric pianos, players can extract a more nuanced sound. A harder press closer to the edge of a key will sound different than the same press farther from the edge.

This piano, hand-made of oak in Japan, guaranteeing each example is truly individual, is also a connected sound experience: link your device via Bluetooth and use the Roland app to personalize the piano and utilize myriad features, or stream music through its speakers. Other ports are available to hardwire music or record straight from the instrument.